my dog = lab + shepOriginally Posted by The Ineffable
Courtesy of wikipedia:
- The Labrador Retriever is one of several kinds of retriever, a type of gun dog. A breed characteristic is webbed paws for swimming, useful for the breed's original purpose of retrieving fishing nets.
- As part of the Herding Group, the German Shepherd is a working dog developed originally for herding and guarding sheep.
Oh, so there's where the guard dog comes in. And look, shepherds are capable of both herding and guarding. Imagine how much more fun my dog would have had herding those goats if they'd have ventured into the lake (she loves chasing ducks, beavers, and muskrats in the water, too).
Here's another source, STARTING GERMAN SHEPHERD DOGS HERDING OTHER LIVESTOCK:
Hmmm...Debbie Burnette, who has Cardigan Welsh Corgis, highly recommends goats for starting dogs. When I questioned this because their groups break apart very easily. She responded that yes they break apart, but they don’t take off. So, the dog can easily put them back together again. A good alternative when there are no appropriate sheep available. Also, although sheep are known for grouping much better than goats, so many sheep we see today, actually group worse than goats. In some areas, it seems like there are not heavy wooly sheep available to work. No one wants to sheer. Therefore, only light haired sheep which are bad for starting GSDs on are available. However, haired goats can be heavy and therefore are a much better choice for GSDs than haired sheep. If all you have is light sheep in your area, seek out goats.
Cow dog folks often start dogs on goats and then progress to cattle. They find this produces a much better on dog then starting on sheep. Goats behave much more like cattle than they do sheep and aren’t as intimidating for a starting dog as are cattle. After they have a handle on the dog and it has gained in confidence, then they move on to cows.
One more:About a month ago my oldest dog Ginger and I went to a four hour training and herding instinct class that was put on by the local sheep herding group. Can I just tell you right now? Sheep herding is HARD. Even when the sheep are goats. I literally didn't understand anything in the 2 hours of inside class time, other than our instructor loved border collies, regular collies, even Corgis, but not German shepherds. Which was kind of dumb because half of their class consisted of German shepherds and their people. This woman literally told us the many different ways German shepherds were unsuitable herding dogs. Also? I don't think she spoke english. I've never been more confused about a lesson in my entire life. I had to keep asking people who had done this before "what the heck does that mean?" I'm sure that didn't get old. It really made no sense to me.
We practiced with a titled border collie and I was totally "Yay"ed by the instructor. But I was just walking back and forth, because that much I understood of the "12 and 6". It seems, though, that regardless of what the instructor lady said earlier, German shepherds are pretty good herders as evidenced by my dog's appearance on their mass email about the class. Ginger was one of three dogs on the cover. Isn't she pretty? (and having SO much fun!!!)
So, Effie, what didn't I get and why should I forget it?
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